User Reviews

Overall Rating:

Value Rating:

Submitted by
yxu707
a Audio Enthusiast

Date Reviewed: January 21, 2011

Bottom Line:

I have had these speakers for about two months. I love their sound, and now I listen to music a whole lot more than before. I have had a pair of Bose 901 series IV speakers for about 10 years. I liked their natural and open sound, but I always felt something is missing. The advantage of the Bose is that they do not punch-you-in-the-face like many direct radiating speakers. The drawback is - for example - drums sound like a low frequency electronic vibration that does not have the feeling of drum sticks hitting drum surface, which completely destroys the sensation of the music. I went to audition many high-end speakers like Totem, KEF, B&W Nautilus in the passing years, but they did not impress me over the Bose.

Coincidentally, I bought a pair of Mirage OM-6 and a Mirage BPS-400 subwoofer from a Craigslist ad for cheap last November. Wow was I impressed, and the improvement is enormous! Compared to the Bose 901, the Mirage's high is clear and crisp, and overall the sound is more natural, clear, and detailed. Most importantly, the sound is more natural and lively. Drums sound like real beating of acoustic drum, and vocals are more like a person singing to a mic rather than the Bose' that make everything sounds like electronically generated and without life. The Mirage sub (110 lbs heavy, dual 12-inch drivers) simply blows away my old 12-inch Infinity sub. What a shame Mirage stopped making these 100-pounders.

Being super happy with the OM-6, I was wondering what would be better. On the internet I found these OMD-28. A couple of reviews praised the new flagship model over the old flagship, so I decided to invest in a pair. I must say that the investment is well worth it. Now my Bose 901's sit in the closet, my OM-6's are in the living room for home theater, and my OMD-28's are in the family room for listening to music. I drive the OMD-28's with an old Denon receiver with 5x100w. It cannot be bridged or bi-amped, but it plays loud (more than) enough in my 12x20 family room. Most of the time I listen to the music when I prepare dinner in the kitchen, so the omni-direction feature of the OMD really helps to fill the whole room with equally good sound. Same as the other reviewers pointed out, I find that the OMD-28 is better than the OM-6 in every respect especially in high and low ends, although both speakers are very sweet sounding.

One other advantage of the Mirage's is that I can play them very loud without feeling noisy or fatigue. With the Bose 901, the sound is very noisy and fatiguing when I turn the volume up likely because of the direct/reflect feature. At high volume, the reflected sound from my non-acoustically-optimized house is so enormous that it urges me to turn the volume down. On the opposite hand, with many direct radiating speakers such as the B&W Nautilus, the sound is so strongly directly punched in my face that I would rather have the Bose. The Mirage's omni-directional design struck the perfect balance. It does not have the overly reverberated reflected sound like the Bose. As a result, I can play it loud without being overwhelmed or feeling fatigue. The sound is clear and clean even at high volume in my house. Only when I try to talk with my wife and can't hear each others I realize that the volume is too high. The sound is not so punchy is either, probably due to its omni-directional design.

The OMD-28 is very capable in producing base and room acoustic correction is a must. Using a sound pressure meter and a testing CD I determined that it is "flat" down to 25 Hz (same as the 110-lb powered sub). I put a quotation mark there because, due to my room acoustics, I have to reduce the base by 5 db from 50 Hz down, and I have to cope with a resonance by reducing 16 db at 40 Hz using a parametric filter. That means I must reduce power by 100 times at 40 Hz. (The correction is about the same on several different speakers/subs, so the effect is definitely due to the room and not the speaker.) I guess I really need to invest in an Audyssey-equipped receiver to get the best sound out of these speakers.

What are the shortcomings of the OMD-28? I would say the 70-lb weight and the piano black glossy finish. The black glossy finish looks great, but you really want to make sure it is not scratched. I recommend keeping the original box just in case you will move. What am I going to do with my Bose 901's that are in the closet? Although they are not as good as these twice-as-expensive Mirages, they produce rich and natural sound much better than many other speakers. I bet their problem is due to the design that 8 out of 9 speakers in the cabinet face backward, and the sound depends on the quality of the back wall, which must be acoustically poor in my house. When I buy an Audyssey-equipped receiver, I will try the 901s again with 8 speakers facing forward.